Maresca Keeps Options Open for Grealish Amid Everton Interest

Enzo Maresca has barely taken his seat in the Manchester City dugout, but one of his first major calls already looms large: what to do with Jack Grealish.

The new City manager refused to close the door on Grealish’s future at the Etihad, even as Everton push to bring the £100m forward back to Hill Dickinson Stadium after his influential loan spell last season.

“At the moment, he's here. He's a Man City player,” Maresca said in his first press conference as City boss.

Simple enough. But in a summer of shifting pieces, those words carry weight.

Grealish is back in Manchester, still on the comeback trail after a stress fracture in his foot cut short a promising loan at Everton. He had been decisive there. Two late match-winning goals, six assists, and a growing sense that he had found a stage that suited his temperament and touch. Then came the injury in January, in a 1-0 win at former club Aston Villa, and the season stopped for him in an instant.

He spent the rest of the campaign rehabbing at Finch Farm, staying with Everton’s squad and staff until his loan officially ended last month. The bond stuck. So did the idea, on Merseyside at least, that this should not be the end of the story.

Everton want him back. They believe Grealish wants the same. The pull is obvious: a fanbase that warmed to him, a manager who trusted him, and a role that put him at the heart of their attacking play rather than on the fringes of an all-star cast.

But City still hold the cards.

Grealish, now 30, is edging closer to full training with his parent club, and this time he returns to a familiar face in a very different role. Maresca, once Pep Guardiola’s assistant, has come back as the man in charge after his spells at Leicester City and Chelsea.

That past relationship matters. The Italian made it clear he knows the player, and more importantly, trusts the person.

“Jack is here. I have a good relation with Jack since I left. Also, we keep in touch, and the reason why is because he has a big heart and he's a very good guy,” Maresca said. “So this is the reason why. And then we see what happens.”

Those last six words will echo around both Manchester and Merseyside.

City are understood to favour a permanent sale over another loan if Grealish does move on. That stance immediately complicates Everton’s pursuit, given the financial realities they continue to navigate. Before any of that can be thrashed out, though, Grealish must prove his fitness. No medical, no negotiations of substance. No green light.

For now, the picture is clear only in outline. A new manager keen to assess every asset at his disposal. A high-profile, high-cost player working back towards full sharpness. A club that fell for him last season, waiting and hoping.

Maresca insists it is his “duty to try to coach” any player who belongs to the club. Whether that duty turns into a renewed role for Grealish in a retooled City side, or into leverage in a summer sale, will define one of the window’s more intriguing subplots.

Everton know what Grealish can give them. City must now decide how much he can still give them.